![\"Cooper](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/atlanta-falcons-v-indianapolis-colts-indianapolis-indiana-august-22-cooper-rush-e1789148084196.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Cooper Rush. <\/p>\n
The Atlanta Falcons were already facing an uphill battle in 2026 \u2014 even before they were forced to turn to their 3rd-string quarterback as the starter in Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFalcons now have ruled out Tua Tagovailoa for Sunday\u2019s opening game in Pittsburgh,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter wrote<\/a> on his official X account on Friday. \u201cWith Tua Tagovailoa sidelined due to an oblique injury, Falcons QB Cooper Rush will start Sunday\u2019s opener at Pittsburgh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFalcons QB Tua Tagovailoa, who suffered an oblique injury, is experiencing enough discomfort that he will miss Sunday\u2019s game vs the Steelers,\u201d NFL insider Jordan Schultz wrote<\/a> on his official X account on Friday. \u201cCooper Rush will start. Michael Penix Jr. is getting closer, but he\u2019s not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Rush was Dallas Cowboys<\/a> quarterback Dak Prescott\u2019s backup from 2017 to 2024. He is 9-7 in 16 career starts for the Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFalcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained an oblique injury in practice Thursday and was listed as a limited participant, according to the team\u2019s official injury report,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter wrote<\/a> on his official X account. \u201cWith Tua Tagovailoa hurting his oblique today, Falcons QB Cooper Rush said he took all the first-team reps during the team part of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s starter for the Falcons, 2024 1st-round pick Michael Penix<\/a> Jr., is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in Week 11 of the 2025 regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficially, Tua Tagovailoa suffered an oblique injury in practice and was limited,\u201d NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport wrote<\/a> on his official X account on Thursday.<\/p>\n Cooper Rush Signed at Start of Training Camp<\/p>\n The Falcons brought Rush in at the start of training camp.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0Atlanta Falcons<\/a>\u00a0have signed veteran QB\u00a0Cooper\u00a0Rush\u00a0ahead of their first training camp practice in about 15 minutes,\u201d\u00a0Falcons reporter Will McFadden wrote<\/a> on his official X account on July 29. \u201cThe signing comes after this morning\u2019s release of Trevor Siemian<\/a> and the news that Tua Tagovailoa will miss the start of camp.\u201d<\/p>\n Rush signed a 2-year, $6.2 million contract with the Ravens to back up 2-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson<\/a>\u00a0but went 0-2 after Jackson was injured and was replaced by\u00a0Tyler Huntley<\/a>. The Ravens released Rush in March.<\/p>\n Falcons Had Fugazi 2-Way Battle for Starting QB<\/p>\n The Falcons entered training camp with 1 of the NFL\u2019s messiest quarterback situations. Penix was drafted in the 1st round (No. 8 overall) of the 2024 NFL<\/a> Draft and has flamed out spectacularly over the 1st 2 seasons of his career \u2014 before the torn ACl.<\/p>\n Tagovailoa, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, flamed out spectacularly with the\u00a0Miami Dolphins<\/a>\u00a0and was a post-June 1 cut. The Dolphins were so desperate to get rid of Tagovailoa that they incurred a $99.2 million dead cap hit by cutting him \u2014 the largest dead cap hit in NFL history.<\/p>\n What many thought would be a quarterback battle in Atlanta didn\u2019t materialize as that \u2014 Penix was never healthy enough to play leaving Tagovailoa as the de facto starter.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, and the entire NFC East Division. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Atlanta Falcons quarterback Cooper Rush. The Atlanta Falcons were already facing an uphill battle in 2026 \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-433103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}